David Sirota, TruthDig, November 25, 2007
“Ross Perot was fiercely against NAFTA. Knowing what we know now, was Ross Perot right?”
That’s what CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Hillary Clinton at last week’s Democratic presidential debate. It was a straightforward query about a Clinton administration trade policy that polls show the public now hates, and it was appropriately directed to a candidate who has previously praised NAFTA.
In response, Clinton stumbled. First she laughed at Perot, then she joked that “all I can remember from that is a bunch of charts,” and then she claimed the whole NAFTA debate “is a vague memory.” The behavior showed how politically tone deaf some Democratic leaders are.
To refresh Clinton’s “vague memory,” let’s recall that Perot’s anti-NAFTA presidential campaign in 1992 won 19 percent of the presidential votethe highest total for any third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt. That included huge tallies in closely divided regions like the Rocky Mountain West, which Democrats say they need to win in the upcoming election.
A Democrat laughing at Perot on national television is a big mistake. Simply put, it risks alienating the roughly 20 million people who cast their votes for the Texas businessman.
If Hillary has only a “vague memory” about the debate on such an important and destructive program as NAFTA, then what is her other “WH experience” worth?
Maybe she can’t remember any of it. Maybe she has the Ronnie Raygun mind disease. Most likely she has “selective memory”. She is a dishonest self-seeking politician who will not get my vote.
Comment by VTindependent — November 25, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
Ross Perot may have been wrong about a lot of things and I’m personally glad He lost,but
He was correct about Nafta causing a huge sucking sound coming from the Mexican Border and He was too all ears.
Come to think of it maybe the sucking sound is actually the sound of illegal immigrantes as thier boots pull out of the Rio Grande Mud,
Thanks to Nafta many have lost family farms and
buisnesses.
http://www.bartcop.com/mex-borders2.jpg
Comment by Rainlander — November 25, 2007 @ 11:51 pm